AU Student Worker Alliancehttp://american.usas.org
Students fighting with workers for justice on our campus and around the worldSat, 03 Nov 2012 14:22:27 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.4VICTORY @ AU: Kevin Nelson Hired Backhttp://american.usas.org/2012/11/03/victory-au-kevin-nelson-hired-back/
Sat, 03 Nov 2012 14:22:21 +0000http://american.usas.org/?p=253This past friday, Kevin Nelson, who had been fired from the Bon Appetit staff at TDR for allegedly “stealing” food from the cafeteria, was hired back after widespread student support put Bon Appetit Management on the spot and forced them to be accountable to their unjust actions. Kevin had been fired after he had worked a shift without taking his lunch break, and after asking his supervisor, took food home with him when he left for the night.

Students filled the comment board with cards calling for Kevin to be re-hired, signed an online petition, called in to management offices in support of Kevin, and participated in a delegation, together with workers, to the regional manager of Bon Appetit demanding that Kevin be re-hired. Coverage of student action can be read in The Eagle: http://www.theeagleonline.com/news/story/students-petition-for-tdr-kevin/

In the end, student and worker power claimed victory as Kevin was re-hired with full back pay for the time he was out. But as we celebrate this victory, we need to sustain our energy and continue the fight! Bon Appetit management is still cutting the hours of full time employees and not providing the resources necessary for workers to provide the best care for their families and for the students.

]]>Students Stand with Kevin Nelson!http://american.usas.org/2012/10/31/students-stand-with-kevin-nelson/
Thu, 01 Nov 2012 03:21:07 +0000http://american.usas.org/?p=245You may have noticed a change in TDR. Kevin Nelson, who often worked at the ice cream counter, has not been in lately.

Last week, Bon Appétit management fired Kevin for allegedly stealing food. Kevin had been working all day and didn’t take his lunch break. He asked his supervisor if he could take some food at the end of his shift and his supervisor said OK. But when leaving work, management approached Kevin and searched his bag, finding the food that he had, and called it “stolen”.

Kevin is one of the most charismatic people many of us have met. His positive energy often is a bright spot on many people’s days. Kevin is a fighter. He has been speaking up against management for the many abuses they have been committing in TDR, the Eagle’s Nest, Tenley Café, the Tavern and MGC marketplace and has shared these grievances with students.

Over the past year, workers have been organizing in their union to fight against the cutbacks they have experienced at work. Many full time workers have seen their hours cut from what is supposed to be a 40-hour a week position to 30 to 35 hours. At the same time, they are expected to work harder as Bon Appétit makes “improvements” without consulting those who are affected most.

Bon Appétit has not been treating workers with respect and giving them the hours and training they need in order to produce the quality food. As students, we have an obligation to stand with the Bon Appétit workers as they struggle for respect on the job. We need to fight back alongside with Kevin and the workers who serve us every day. Until Kevin is hired again, and steps are taken to alleviate the situation facing all Bon Appétit workers, we will not be silent.

Over the last few years, Bon Appetit, the company sub-contracted by the University to provide food services here at AU has made many improvements to the food and has made significant steps to make the food more sustainable environmentally. But there is one thing that Bon Appetit has forgot – the workers. With their hours cut from the 40 hours a week they are supposed to get, many workers are having a harder time feeding their families and making sure that the work that they do, feeding us, is done the best way possible. But the workers know that they don’t need to put up with the corporate greed perpetrated by Bon Appetit. They are rising up and fighting back, so that we can have real food and real jobs here on our campus!

Join SWA, Eco-sense, and a variety of other clubs in standing with our food service workers in solidarity. For more information, email email hidden; JavaScript is required

]]>AU Professor Speaks About His Experience At SEIU Interational Convention, Cites Student Involvement as Key to Successhttp://american.usas.org/2012/09/06/au-professor-speaks-about-his-experience-at-seiu-interational-convention-cites-student-involvement-as-key-to-success/
Thu, 06 Sep 2012 05:22:42 +0000http://american.usas.org/?p=230Watch this video of Erich Vogt, an adjunct professor in SIS, speak at the SEIU international convention about the unionization campaign here at AU. He specifically cites student involvement as a reason for their success!

]]>Join the Student Worker Alliance for a Rally in Solidarity with Aramark Workershttp://american.usas.org/2012/04/17/join-the-student-worker-alliance-for-a-rally-in-solidarity-with-aramark-workers/
Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:19:49 +0000http://american.usas.org/?p=223This coming Friday, April 20, students at American University will be rallying in solidarity with Aramark janitorial staff on campus, who have been consistently disrespected by both Aramark management and the AU administration. Faced with increasing workloads without any comparable increases in pay or benefits, many Aramark workers have felt the impacts of the work increases dramatically.

“Our health has been adversely affected by the present conditions.” One worker stated in a recorded testimony. Workers for the most part have wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from management. The same worker continued: “We go to sleep exhausted. We wake up in the morning, exhausted; and — exhausted — we go to work.”

In order to remedy the situation, the American University Student Worker Alliance has proposed including a limit on workloads within the university’s contract with Aramark, to be re-negotiated this summer, and to include a limit on workloads within the university’s new Social Responsibility Code. The Student Worker Alliance has delivered two letters to the university administration asking them to consider these steps. They have not received any answer directly from the university, but have received a letter back from Don MacIntire, Director of Housekeeping and Aramark’s head manager on AU’s campus, dismissing all of our concerns.

We will not let the administration and Aramark, who are working together to hide the problems faced by Aramark workers on our campus. Join SWA for a rally and march on Friday, April 20th at 2:15 PM on the main quad of American University. More information is available here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/268766809884609/

]]>“What do you think about the working condition of AU’s Aramark workers?” EVENThttp://american.usas.org/2012/04/04/what-do-you-think-about-the-working-condition-of-aus-aramark-workers-event/
Wed, 04 Apr 2012 18:58:53 +0000http://american.usas.org/?p=182On Wednesday, March 28th, The Student Worker Alliance hosted “What do you think about the working conditions of AU’s Aramark Workers?”.

This event was dedicated to further bridging the gap that exists between students and Aramark workers.

We were able to engage with students, as well as have meaningful discussions about Aramark Workers and what WE can do as a community to create change.

The event was a success and we are working hard to keep up the momentum of our campaign!

]]>Dignity and Respect for Aramark Workershttp://american.usas.org/2012/04/04/day-1-of-tabling/
Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:59:57 +0000http://american.usas.org/?p=157For the past few weeks, the Student Worker Alliance has been working hard to gain student support across campus.

Below are few photos of students who have come out and shown their dedication and support for the Aramark Workers!

]]>Not a Campaign, Just the Facts: Justice for Aramark Workershttp://american.usas.org/2012/03/31/not-a-campaign-just-the-facts-justice-for-aramark-workers/
Sat, 31 Mar 2012 18:26:31 +0000http://american.usas.org/?p=147Over the last year here at AU, Aramark Workers have been forced to work 5,000 more square feet per day than in the past, bringing their daily quote to 27,000 sq ft per day. If workers cannot complete their work three times, they are fired.

Last thursday, around 30 students delivered a letter to President Kerwin’s office to outline the injustices being perpetrated on campus and to propose a solution. Here is the letter that we delivered:

Dear President Kerwin,

We, the students of American University, believe that all of the people who live, study, and work on our campus are all equal members of the same American University community. American University’s cleaning service workers play an especially important role in maintaining our campus and AU could not function without them. Over the years, many students have developed deeply personal relationships with the cleaning staff, and we have a special respect for the work that they do. However, due to their ambiguous status as workers on our campus but employees of a private company, the workers’ needs often go unheard. It is out of our sense of community and the deep respect that we have for the workers that we demand that American University take action now to alleviate the deteriorating working conditions on our campus.

Last Spring, American University renegotiated its contract with Aramark. In the new contract, Aramark agreed to take over the cleaning of several off campus buildings without hiring any new employees. In order to accomplish this, Aramark increased the daily workload for each worker by 5,000 square feet, to 27,000 square feet per day. While we have been told by Aramark management and university administrators that new technology has allowed this increase to happen with minimal human impact, it is clear to us that in reality, workers are bearing the cost of the new contract.

Over the past year, workers have experienced tremendous pressure from Aramark supervisors and university administrators to work faster. Many workers have trouble meeting their workload, but by regularly failing to complete their unrealistic daily quotas, they face termination. No less than six workers have been fired this year alone, and yet no new workers have been hired to fill their spots. The nightshift has been especially affected. Nightshift workers report that they are chronically understaffed and are often required to clean more that the required 27,000 square feet per day. These conditions have caused serious health problems for many workers, on all three shifts.

As the university administration renegotiates its contract with Aramark, we ask that two key provisions by included in the contract in order to solve these chronic problems. The first is to set a universal standard for the amount of space an Aramark worker is required to clean per day. We ask that this standard be set at last year’s level, 22,000 square feet. Furthermore, a provision should be included that requires Aramark to hire new employees after a worker is fired or quits.

We hope that by working together, we can solve the issues faced by some of the most valuable workers on our campus.

Adjunct professors at American University in Washington, D.C., won a union last month, but not before two years of organizing made it possible. The campaign started as adjuncts met in each other’s homes and slowly grew to encompass rallies, marches, and flashmobs from supportive students.

Adjuncts are a notoriously transient workforce, shuttling between many campuses to pull together enough classes to make a living. The vote came in 379-284, however, a victory for professors who have been struggling with low pay, no benefits, and no job security. Many adjuncts are paid as little as $2,000 per course.

University administrators had sent anti-union memos to faculty and students, but in a surprising move, agreed to recognize the union and not challenge the election results.

AU administrators had fought shuttle bus drivers in 2007 who won a union with the Teamsters, and in 1996, operating engineers failed in their bid to organize after the university put on a serious intimidation campaign.

Leaders in the new union suspect that administrators did not expect such a big margin. When faced with a healthy majority and strong student support, administrators were forced to acknowledge the deep dissatisfaction. It was a cold dose of reality for administrators who crow about the “campus community.”

The adjuncts’ decision to join Service Employees Local 500 makes them the third school around the district to join the local. George Washington University adjuncts signed up in 2005 and adjuncts at Montgomery College in 2008.

While many colleges, especially public institutions, find themselves in a financial bind, American does not. AU is a private school with about 6,500 undergraduates and 5,000 graduate students. It is most widely known for its School of International Studies and School of Public Policy and its student body is usually ranked highly by the Princeton Review as “politically active.”

The university budget for fiscal year 2012 projects a roughly 15 percent growth in expenditures. Salaries for part-time faculty make up less than 2 percent of the budget. Pay for the five highest-paid administration figures, however, has soared in the last five years, to near $3 million combined. Full-time tenured professors make up to $150,000 a year.

As negotiations draw closer, said Anne McLeer, research director for Local 500 and herself a former adjunct, adjuncts are looking for “improved rates of pay, access to benefits, to fair evaluations, to job security, and protections against unfair and capricious discipline or dismissal.”

IT’S BAD EVERYWHERE

Adjuncts across the country face similar difficulties. A 2010 study on the conditions faced by part-time faculty at two-year and four-year institutions, published by the Teachers union (AFT), reported that only 28 percent of adjuncts receive health benefits through their colleges and a third are paid less than $2,500 per course. Almost half say they make less than $15,000 annually from teaching.

A plurality say they would like to teach at one institution full-time but cannot find a position. More than half rely on teaching alone for their income.

The AFT study says unionized faculty are in a far better situation than their non-union counterparts, enjoying less concern about compensation, a greater likelihood of having health insurance, and better access to employer-funded retirement plans.

American’s adjuncts face more than bread-and-butter problems. They are roughly half the teaching population, with upwards of 500 adjuncts in classrooms each semester, but many feel isolated from the university community. Erik Cooke, in the Philosophy and Religion Department, said adjuncts “often feel very marginal to the conversation.” Part-timers have had, until recently, no place in the faculty senate or any other university governance structures.

Having no job security, prospects for promotion, or living wage has “detrimental effects on academic freedom itself, the ability to do research, the creation of the next generation of scholars, and the production of knowledge in our society,” McLeer says.

Adjunct professors are starting to coordinate to challenge their precarious status through organizations such as the New Faculty Majority and the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor. The Modern Language Association, an international association of teachers and professors of the humanities, has long been known as the arbiter of proper footnotes and the bane of English students. The MLA has now begun to champion the cause of adjuncts, recommending minimum pay of $6,800 per course.

The conditions adjuncts face result from the university’s unique role as both the employer and producer of adjunct professors. Years ago, the majority of adjuncts were professionals who taught on the side, a short-term arrangement where teaching was not their primary income. But with full-time, tenure-track positions at colleges and universities increasingly rare, many newly minted PhDs are going straight from graduate school to teaching as an adjunct.

Cooke sees adjuncts used by universities to “undermine the situation of tenure-track colleagues” and “pad the bottom-line of university administrators” by providing an ample pool of low-cost, highly qualified knowledge workers.

McLeer said that by voting to unionize, “American University adjuncts are now joining the many adjunct and contingent faculties across the country who are refusing to allow themselves to be treated as a second tier.”

]]>VICTORY: Adjunct Professors Win Unionization Vote and University Promises to not Challenge in Courthttp://american.usas.org/2012/02/17/victory-adjunct-professors-win-unionization-vote-and-university-promises-to-not-challenge-in-court/
Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:33:37 +0000http://american.usas.org/?p=126Yesterday, after a lengthy ballot counting process, it was determined that the part-time professors at American University will be legally allowed to form a union and affiliate with the Service Employees International Union, Local 500. Voting 379 for and 284 against, our adjunct professors decided to become the third group of adjuncts to unionize in the DC area. SEIU local 500 already represents adjunct professors at George Washington University and Montgomery College.

This victory for worker’s rights on campus comes after a lot of work on the part of the Student Worker Alliance to pressure the university administration to remain neutral and recognize the results of the election. Two weeks ago, students from SWA delivered a letter and petition with over 200 signatures to every school dean and department head on campus. Later that same week, SWA staged two flashmobs, the latter of which culminated in a march to the provost’s office where the same letter and petition was delivered to him. Earlier in the semester, students made a video expressing student support for unionization efforts.

We want to send our most sincere congratulatory messages to all of the adjunct professors who have dedicated their last semester to fighting for their union. We will continue standing in solidarity with you throughout your contract negotiations and whatever comes next.